Recap: Live blog of Secret Service director’s testimony to House committee

September 30, 2014, 9:55 AM ET

Reuters

U.S. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson takes her seat to testify at the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on September 30, 2014.

Read a recap of the director of the U.S. Secret Service testifying before the House’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Tuesday, in the wake of the latest security breach at the White House. Julia Pierson faced tough questions from Republicans and Democrats alike and said such a breach would never happen again. MarketWatch’s Rob Schroeder live blogged the hearing.

This is going to be a tough hearing for Pierson. On Monday, the Washington Post reported the man who jumped the fence at the White House earlier in September made it well past the mansion’s front door. For more on that, read here.

There’s the first zinger, as Issa says the Secret Service’s record is “blemished.” He’s now going back through the fence-jumper case involving Omar Gonzalez, who got much farther into the White House than previously disclosed.

Issa says it often happens that people try to scale the White House fence. But he wants to know why Omar Gonzalez wasn’t immediately apprehended, why there was no guard stationed at the front door at the White House — and how much it would cost to lock the front door of the White House.

Now it’s Pierson’s turn. Testifying on the same panel are Ralph Basham, a former director of the Secret Service and Todd Keil, who headed infrastructure protection for the Department of Homeland Security.

Cummings gets his turn to ask questions. He’s also focusing on the 2011 incident, which involves a gunman who opened fire on the White House. The Secret Service has pushed back against a report in the Washington Post that claimed a Secret Service supervisor ordered agents to stand down and said the sound of gunfire sounded like a vehicle backfiring.

Back to Eleanor Holmes Norton. She wants to know if people will continue to have access to the White House perimeter. Have you considered simply asking for a higher fence around the White House, she asks Pierson.

It should be noted that these members of the committee are at the hearing during a congressional recess. The House adjourned less than two weeks ago so members could campaign for the mid-term elections. Hearings like this one are rare.

Sorry, readers: It was Rep. Stephen Lynch, not fellow Massachusetts Democrat John Tierney, who made that last comment about the Secret Service not taking its job seriously. Your blogger regrets the error.

John Mica, a Florida Republican, just held up a sign for ADT security systems and asks Pierson, “have you ever heard of these guys?” A quick Google search finds the ADT Corp. is headquartered in Boca Raton, Fla.

This hearing is approaching the three-hour mark. What have we learned? Pierson says the security breach was “unacceptable” and it “will never happen again.” The Secret Service is investigating the Sept. 19 fence-jumping incident. And lawmakers disagree about when to use lethal force against White House intruders.